Ramblin' Butterscotch Root Beer

I opened this during my boys' nap time today:

Brand: Ramblin' Butterscotch Root Beer.

Origin: Atlanta, GA.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This wasn't great. It was OK, but a bit "chemically." The butterscotch was overpowering and a bit too much. It just didn't impress me and wasn't that good. You MIGHT like it if you REALLY like butterscotch, but that's about the only good thing I can say about this.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Whistler Black Cherry Soda

I enjoyed this while in a hotel room in Winona last night:

Watching NCAA track and field in the background.

Brand: Whistler Black Cherry Soda.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: I haven't had great luck with Whistler sodas in the last few weeks, so I didn't have high expectations going into this. But it was pretty good. It was very smooth, and had a deep black cherry flavor. There was a slightly weird "bite" in the aftertaste, but it was subtle and it didn't ruin the experience. I liked this.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Big Ben's Root Beer

I opened this last night as the boys played in the yard:

Brand: Big Ben's Root Beer.

Origin: Catawissa, PA.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: This was pretty rich. It had a deep caramel flavor on top of a relatively vanilla classic root beer flavor. The caramel flavor was just a little too much for me, but not horrible. I'll give this a pretty average score.

Score: 5.5 out of 10.

Celsius Cola

This seemed interesting. I was scared...

Brand: Celsius Cola.

Origin: Boynton Beach, Florida.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sucralose.

Review: The first thing I did was look online to check the caffeine content because it wasn't listed on the bottle. Amazon.com tells me there's 200 mg of caffeine per serving! (A can of Coke has around 30 mg, and a cup of coffee is around 90 mg. "Diet Pepsi Max" which totes about having a lot of caffeine has 69 mg in a can.) There's a warning that reads "Not recommended for people who are caffeine sensitive, children under 18 or women pregnant or nursing."

But how'd it taste? It was like a weak, fruity cola. It had the "thinness" of a diet, but it wasn't bad. The weak flavor that was there was pretty good. It was a unique cola. I drank it at 2 sittings because of the high caffeine, but this surprised me! I may have to try this again when I need a pick-me-up.

Score: 6.5 out of 10.

Whistler Cookie Dough Soda

I cracked into this while my boys were napping this afternoon:

Brand: Whistler Cookie Dough Soda.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: The first thing I noticed is there was no carbonated "SSsssss" when I popped the top, so this wasn't seal properly. It didn't taste like it had "gone bad," it just tasted like it lost it's carbonation. The flavor was weird: like a mild cola with a LOT of caramel. I see what they were going for, but it was odd. Maybe it was because it was no longer carbonated, so I think I might have to try this soda again to be fair. For right now, it was weird...

Score: 3.5 out of 10.

Fritz-Kola Fritz-Limo Apfel-Kirsch-Holunder-Limonade

This was a german soda that I picked up, and I didn't know what I was about to drink:

Probably the last "classroom" photo of the spring
as I'm grading final projects right now as I drink this.

After I took my first sip, I found an added-on English sticker on the back. It said it was "Natural Cherry Soda" of Germany. On their website, they called it "fritz-limo apple, cherry and elderberry." It had a lot of apple juice and a little sour cherry juice (both listed before sugar), and then a bit of elderberry juice as well. They appear to sort of be marketing it as a juice drink, and not as a soda.


Brand: Fritz-Kola Fritz-Limo Apfel-Kirsch-Holunder-Limonade

Origin: Hamburg-Othmarschen, Germany.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: It was not "cherry" at all. It was very much like chilled, carbonated hot apple cider that makes me think of Christmas. It wasn't bad - it just wasn't what I expected in a "cherry" soda. I really thought about it as I sipped it, and I could NOT taste ANY cherry flavor. It was all apple to me. It had a bit of a bite at the end of each sip that wasn't super desirable, but overall, it was pretty good. Sweet, but not too sweet. I'll give it an average score.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Whistler Cherry Vanilla Cola

I opened this earlier today and thought it could be weird:

Brand: Whistler Cherry Vanilla Cola.

Origin: Spring Lake Park, MN.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: I thought this sounded weird. So I was ready for weird. But it was actually pretty good. It's a very smooth cola with a nice vanilla undertone. The cherry is a BIT fake-tasting, but it's not bad. In the end, this went down pretty easy.

Score: 6 out of 10.

Claeys Root Beer Old Fashioned Hard Candies

I've had this bag of Root Beer Candies that I've been working on for many years:

I picked these up over 3 years ago as seen in this post!

My wife was about to throw it away because I was eating them very slowly, but I'm not a huge "hard candy" guy. But then she tried one and was NOT going to throw them away. They are good! When I first started to write this, they had 21 ratings on Amazon, and 17 are a full 5 stars. (There were two 4 star, a 3 star, and a 1 star rating, but the 1 star rating is someone saying they LOVE them, so I don't think they know how to work the "star system.") Now there are many more reviews, so I think they're catching on!


Brand: Claeys Root Beer Old Fashioned Hard Candies.

Origin: South Bend, Indiana.

Purchase Place: "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store," Jordan, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar and Corn Syrup.

Review: These have a very "true" Root Beer flavor. They taste like a better "adult" version of the root beer barrels we all had at parades as kids. I don't often rate candies here, but if I were to give this a score like I do sodas, I'd have to say it was a better-than-average 8.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Saranac Root Beer

After a long weekend, I cracked into this tonight:

Brand: Saranac Root Beer.

Origin: Utica, NY.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: This tasted pretty "classic," which is a good thing. Quite smooth with no bite. There was a fair amount of a caramel aftertaste which I wasn't a huge fan of, but it was still quite good. I'll rank it a bit above average.

Score: 7 out of 10.